Enhancing sensitivity of MEMS chemical sensors by sorption-induced parametric modulation

The paper presents an analysis of electrostatically driven polymer-coated MEMS cantilever resonator under parametric modulation induced by vapor sorption. This is done by harmonic modulation of the analyte concentration in vapor phase. A parametric resonance is found to occur at frequency lower than both the drive and the modulation frequency. Numerical results are presented that suggest the possibility for enhancing MEMS sensor performance by sorptive chemical modulation.